Keenan Kampa to join Mariinsky

Announced in the Washington Post this morning- Boston Ballet dancer Keenan Kampa, who completed her training at the Vaganova Academy, will be joining the Mariinsky Ballet from June. Congratulations Ms Kampa!

If I recall correctly, I saw her in Vaganova Academy in her graduation year of 2010. Her first year in Boston was this 2010-2011 season. The link provided was from 2009 Vaganova Academy production of Nutcracker season, I am assuming since that is the rehearsal I was very fortunate to see.

Does anyone know the rank into which she'll be taken? I'm assuming Corps de Ballet but the MT has been known to take in young dancers at the Choryphee or even the 2nd Soloist level who've already danced professionally in other companies, e.g., Timur Askerov when he moved from Ukraine last season, after a year or so in the corps in Kyiv. There's also the new "Trainee" category this year; currently, the only "Trainee" is Kim Kimin of Korea.http://www.mariinsky.../trainee/kimin/

...the announcement of Keenan's joining will be made at the Kennedy Center during the present Diaghilev run, which is a rather unusual way of announcing new corps de ballet...especially one who isn't even due to join the company for several months. (There's always a 'first time' for everything.)

Quote:An official announcement to this effect will be made at the John F.Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington...

Another "Voice of Russia" article similarly states that there will be an on-stage announcement of the signing of the next 10-year Agreement between the Kennedy Center and the Mariinsky.

So I'm guessing that Yuri Fateev will be taking to the stage after one of the upcoming shows to make the big announcements???

All in all, it looks like those of us who were able to nab tickets to the weekend performances of the run are in for a treat. This is almost as good as a Reality Show...or The Oscars!

[size=3]p.s. Some of us had been hearing about Mr Fateev preparing to make a "big announcement" on-stage during this run and had thought that it would be the long-awaited promotion of a certain 1st soloist. Ah, well...maybe good news "comes in threes"? [/size]

One error that everybody seems to be making in all the hype: she is not the first American to join the Mariinsky; that honor went to Rasta Thomas, who joined as a Second Soloist in the 2000/2001 timeframe and danced, among other ballets, a memorable Jeune Homme et la Morte opposite Lopatkina. He returned to the US after a year but the fact is that he was an American regular (not 'guest') member of the Mariinsky Ballet.

That very brief clip gives a hint as to how magnetic Ms. Kampa must be on stage, even when performing something simple. I don't know that I've ever seen (or noticed) that charming youthful gesture of playing with the snow.